Pachter on PS Now: Sony Can’t Afford Netflix-Like Steamed Content

Wedbush Morgan analyst explains why publishers may not opt for the game streaming service.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has criticized Sony’s plans for PlayStation Now before but now he argues that the company won’t be able to afford content streaming on their upcoming Cloud-based service.

As Pachter states on the latest episode of GT’s Bonus Round, publishers won’t offer their content on a subscription-based service so easily since they risk losing out on sales on a per retail copy basis.

“The math doesn’t make sense for the content owners. If the math doesn’t make sense for the content owners, it isn’t gonna happen. So, the lower the subscrition price, the less likely this thing will work. If it’s a thirty dollars subscription price, which the publishers will embrace, then no one’s gonna sign up.”

Pachter also compared Sony’s model to Netflix which has branched out into original content in the past few years. “I don’t think you could make it work. Netflix is the anomaly.The low price subscription plan with tons and tons of content…They did a bunch of really clever deals early on to make that happen, and then they got big enough that they can afford to pay. Sony’s not big enough to afford to pay that kind of dollars. They don’t have that much money.”

Currently, PS Now is in the beta testing stage and will go live in the Summer for PS4.